1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to various building tools and methods related thereto. For example, the invention involves various methods and apparatuses for comfortably gripped and efficiently controlled building tools. Further, the invention involves various methods and apparatuses for high quality, durable and/or lightweight building tools.
2. Description of Related Art
Various tools have been known in the past for working with cements, concretes, mastics and/or muds to, for example, prepare, apply and/or finish a desired shape or smooth surface for various building surfaces. For example, some tools used for applying material to or preparing the surface of, for example, concrete, include trowels. These types of tools are typically hand tools that are used to apply materials for making and/or smoothing various building surfaces such as floors and walls and may be used to apply various materials to building surfaces. These tools may be used by skilled craftsman working on a number of surfaces for long periods of time during the work day. As such, a comfortable grip(s) may be particularly important in developing a most desirable building tool(s).
Referring to FIGS. 1A-1D, one typical prior art trowel including a trowel tang and blade is shown. A handle 110 for gripping is provided. The handle has a generally oval or round shape. In particular, referring to FIG. 1A, the trowel 100 includes a tang 150 that connects the trowel handle 110 to the trowel blade 105. The tang 150 includes a handle connecting member 151, a blade attachment member 152, and a handle support member 153 (see FIG. 1D) that all cooperate as a tang 150 in connecting the trowel handle 110 to the trowel blade 105. In the view of FIG. 1A, the connecting member 151 has a slight curve to its upper half so as to reflect its shape on either side to somewhat follow the round sides of the handle 110, but as shown below connecting member 151 has a side view that is substantially straight and vertical relative to the plane (horizontal when the trowel bottom surface of the blade is set on a horizontal surface) of the handle 110 and trowel blade 105. In other words, when looking at the trowel handle from the top as shown in FIG. 1C, the front or forward surface of the connecting member 151 of the tang has some curve to the left and the right of the center line, but when looking at the side view shown in FIGS. 1B and 1D, that from top to bottom the connecting member 151 is substantially straight and vertical having only a very slight slant relative to perfect perpendicular. Further, the back surface of the connecting member 151 is substantially flat and also approximately perpendicular to blade 105 and main axis of the handle 110. The very top, and a substantial portion of, the connecting member 151, is also as wide as the handle 110, so as to cover a forward face of the handle 110, resulting in a very abrupt drop and bulky front end surface to the tang 150.
Referring now to FIG. 1B, a side view of a prior art trowel and trowel tang is shown. As more clearly shown in FIG. 1B, the handle connecting member 151 is a substantially solid and straight member having a front surface 151A and a back surface 151B each with an approximately linear top-to-bottom and side-to-side slope. Further, the handle connecting member 151 has a narrow width measured from the front surface 151A to the back surface 151B. A typical trowel, for example, may have a handle connecting member 151 with a front-to-back width of approximately 1 cm (0.4 inches). The handle connecting member 151 is coupled at one end to the blade attachment member 152 at a connection point 154 slightly offset in a forward direction from the center of the blade attachment member 152. This typical trowel has a connection point 154 so that the front surface 151A meets the blade attachment member 152 at a point 154A having a distance of approximately 9.5 cm (3.75 inches) from a front end 152A of the blade attachment member 152 and the back surface 151B meets the blade attachment member 152 at a point 154B having a distance of approximately 11 cm (4.375 inches) from the front end 152A of the blade attachment member 152. Note that the front point 154A has an abrupt angle that is approximately 90 degrees, and the back point 154B has a slightly rounded connection point but is still approximately a 90 degree angle, with the vertical axis of the connecting member 151 being approximately perpendicular to the horizontal axis of the blade attachment member. As can be clearly seen from this side view in FIG. 2B, the handle connecting member 151 is also connected approximately perpendicular to the blade attachment member 152. The typical trowel may have a handle connecting member 151 with an angle (denoted 165) relative to the blade attachment member 152 of approximately 85 to 95 degrees. The blade attachment member 152 is elongated laterally across the trowel blade 105 and has a short height and narrow width that is used for coupling the blade attachment member 152 to the trowel blade 105. The typical trowel may have a blade attachment member 152 with a height and width both of approximately ⅔ to 1⅓ cm (0.25 to 0.5 inches). Substantially the entire top surface of the blade attachment member 152 is approximately parallel to the trowel blade 105 having no slope so as to be approximately the same height across its entire length, from its very forward most point at the end of section 152A, adjacent the connection point 154 of the connecting member 151 and blade attachment member 152 of the tang 150, and through the very rearward most end of section 152B.
Referring to FIG. 1C, a top view of a typical trowel is shown. From this view it can be seen that the handle member 110 with front portion 150 is approximately ⅓ the width of blade 105 and oriented to the center of the blade width. The constant width of the blade attachment member 152 is also illustrated as width 1F and 1G at ends 152A and 152B of the blade attachment member 152, respectively, and is the same in size. The blade attachment member 152 is mounted to the blade 105 at approximately the center of the blade width and extends across most of the blade 105 length. The handle 110 is held to the tang via a cap 115 and a nut or bolt 120. Most notably in FIG. 1C, the handle connecting member 151 is very narrow along the length of the blade 105. The top most portion 151C of the handle connecting member 151 is also very narrow and abuts the handle front portion 150, but is slightly narrow than the handle 110 and handle front portion 150. In any case, there is little lateral top surface of the handle connecting member 151 available onto which a user may place their hand, palm or finger on comfortably.
As more clearly shown in FIG. 1D, showing the handle 110 and cap 115 in cross sectional taken along line 1D and 1E of the FIG. 1C top view, the handle connecting member 151 is connected at its other end to the handle support member 153 so as to be approximately perpendicular to the handle connecting member 151 and approximately parallel to the blade attachment member 152 and trowel blade 105. As shown, the typical trowel may have the entire length of the handle support member 153 with an angle (annotated as 170) relative to the handle connecting member 151 angle of approximately 85 to 95 degrees, both relative to the plane of the blade attachment member 152. As previously indicated, the typical trowel also has a handle connecting member 151 with an angle (annotated as 165) relative to the blade attachment member 152 of approximately 85 to 95 degrees. The handle support member 153 includes a forward portion 153A and a rearward portion 153B, both approximately parallel to each other and approximately perpendicular to the handle connecting member 151. The rearward portion 153B is substantially round in shape and thinner than the forward portion 153A. The forward portion 153A of the handle support member 153 is substantially square in shape and thicker than the rearward portion 153B. The major lateral axis through hole of the handle 110 is substantially straight so that the substantially straight handle support member 153 may be assembled easily into the lateral through hole (from end to end of the handle 110) in the handle 110. An inside forward portion of the trowel handle 110 is through hole is hollowed with a similar square shape of the handle support member forward portion 153A such that the thickness and square shape of the forward portion 153A of the handle support member 153 allows the trowel handle 110 to snugly fit onto the handle support member 153 and prevents side-to-side rotation about a center axis of the trowel handle 110 during use. An end cap 115 and end nut 120, hollowed with a similar round shape, are attached to the end of the trowel handle 110 and handle support member 153, respectively, so as to prevent front-to-back sliding of the trowel handle 110 during use.
The trowel handle 110 has a top surface 110A and a bottom surface 110B and side surfaces (not labeled), which together provide a user with a gripping area and have only slight curvature due to a gradually increasing width in the trowel handle 110. The trowel handle 110 meets the handle connecting member 151 at a handle interface 145 (see FIG. 1A) in such a way that both the top surface 110A and the bottom surface 110B of the trowel handle 110 are adjacent to a portion of the handle connecting member 151 and are approximately perpendicular therewith.
These types of tools, for example trowels, are typically designed to be held by the hand of a user in a single manner and orientation. For example, with the typical prior art trowel shown in FIGS. 1A-1D, the user would most comfortably grip the handle coming from a the direction of the back end of the trowel (end with the end cap 115) with their fingers, palm and thumb of one hand surrounding the central portion of trowel handle 110. However, many users may find it more advantageous to shift, modify, and/or change the orientation of their method of holding the trowel or tool(s). Therefore, it is advantageous to build such trowel(s) or tool(s) to be comfortably gripped and efficiently controlled by the hand of a user in various manners and orientations so as to increase the comfort and control of such tools for various surfaces or for use during long periods of time.
In addition to being used on various surfaces and for long periods of time, these types of tools are exposed to various bumps, jolts and mechanical stresses, as well as corrosive substances in their use. Therefore, it is advantageous to build such tools to be cost effective, light in weight and durable against extensive use and stress as well as the corrosion from corrosive materials they are designed to work on (e.g., concrete, mastic, mud, etc.).